Eleven-year-old Matthew Mayne shares the story of the day he racked up his highest cricket score ever – 62 not out for Kyalami Prep School against Reddam Helderfontein.

It was a hot and sunny day in Joburg, perfect for cricket. My friends and I were playing cricket at break and you could sense that we were ready for our game later and we wanted to win. We were eventually on our way to Reddam Helderfontein, I felt the trip took forever because I just wanted to get to the pitch and play! We were there at last.

The team and I went to check the pitch, but it wasn’t what we thought it would be – it was a roll-on carpet type of pitch. The team and I were concerned. I put on my blazer and went to do the toss, Reddam won the toss and chose to bowl. As I told the team we were batting first, our coach gathered us and told us the batting order. I was opening with my friend Reece. We padded up and walked on.

From ball one Reece and I were saying ‘Yoh this pitch is weird’, But we still managed to keep playing our shots. However, during the third over my opening partner got bowled.

Then Mako, my other good friend and a really good cricketer came in, whose highest score is 150 in a T20!

Mako and I had an amazing partnership of about 80 runs, but unexpectedly Mako intended a pull shot but instead he skied it straight in the air and was caught.

After that my Strikers cricket club teammate Kyle came in for the last stages of the innings. During the 16th over I hit a leg-side pull shot for four and then my coach told me ‘That’s your 50’!

I came to the middle and said to Kyle ‘I have 50!’

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I thought that it would never ever be me – I was overexcited with joy. Then Kyle got out for a well-played 25 runs and Christopher came in with 2 overs left.

He and I had to run quickly between the wickets, as our total was 170 for 3. Then my coach told me that I’d made 62 not out, my highest score ever.

Thank you to my loving and caring family, my friends at Kyalami Prep School and to the coaches from both teams who took their time to let us play.

– Matthew Mayne (11, submitted by his dad)